Fox Sports used
Sony’s F55 and F65 cameras at the World Series and Super Bowl to do multiple
cut-outs and zooms.Sony is also enhancing the performance of its
cameras, with ongoing feature enhancements and firmware updates, with more
announcements to be made at the NAB Show.

LAS VEGAS—Sony’s
2014 NAB Show exhibition can be thought of as full speed ahead with 4K. “We’re
talking about 4K for 2K productions, 4K for 4K productions,” said Alec Shapiro,
president of Sony Professional Solutions. “Essentially 4K for everything and
beyond.”

He pointed out the
progress the company’s made to flesh out a 4K product line for every
application. “We’ve got 4K acquisition products and solutions starting well
under $10,000, going up to the F55 at about $35,000 and the F65 at $85,000”
Shapiro said. “So we’ve got 4K acquisition solutions at price-points for
virtually every application and budget. Depending on the application and
budget, we have a 4K answer for you.”

8K DEMO
Sony’s solutions
for 4K don’t end at acquisition equipment. “We also have 4K flat-panel displays,
projectors, and switchers that are 4K capable,” said Shapiro.

All of that said,
Sony won’t be introducing any new cameras at this NAB. “What we’ve heard from
customers,” he said, “is that rather than introduce new cameras every year,
they’d like to see us introduce upgrades to the existing cameras, which is what
we’re doing. We’ve made enhancements and upgrades to the F65, which was
introduced several years ago, and the F55 and F5 introduced last year.”

Sony’s high-end MVS
production switchers have also been given 4K video switching capabilities in
the MVS-X series. Existing MVS-7000X and MVS-8000X HD-capable switchers can be
upgraded to 4K. One piece of technology in the Sony booth that will not only be
must-see but can’t-miss, because of its size, is an 8K projection system that
takes the output of two, side-by-side Sony 4K projectors and stitches them
together, using edge blending, into a seamless, very wide screen.

ARCHIVING AND
PRODUCTION
Another product
that has gone from a technology demonstration last year to a deliverable
product now is Sony’s Optical Disc Archive System for video storage. “This year
we actually are implementing it, “said Shapiro, “and we have our first proof of
concept customer with the Golf Channel.”

Sony will showcase
the 4K monitors it displayed last year, along with a 30-inch 4K OLED prototype.

Sony’s Vision
Presenter will also be demonstrated in the company’s booth. The interactive
presentation solution, with its ability to gang up to five HD resolution
pictures on a 4K monitor or projection screen, is attracting attention from the
education market, “especially the teaching hospitals,” according to Shapiro. He
added that sports stadiums have also expressed excitement about such multi-picture
arrays on 85-inch 4K screens for their luxury suites.

The AWS 750 Anycast
Touch all-in-one live production system is another product that has gone from
prototype to delivering product in the past year. It is aimed at the business,
education and house of worship markets.

In the IP
transmission arena, Sony will demonstrate its NXL-IP55 IP Live Production Unit,
designed to replace multiple video cables by using IP to send those signals
over a LAN. The NXL-IP55 allows transmission of up to four genlocked HD video
streams (three downstream and one upstream, or two downstream and two upstream)
with less than one field delay time. Audio and signals such as tally, GPIO and
intercom can be included.

Shapiro said the
gap between professionals and consumers continues to narrow when it comes to
content acquisition solutions. At Sony’s press event last year, the company
unveiled a collection of lenses that are now ready to be sold to both the professional
and consumer markets. Those lenses will be featured in the company’s booth at
the end of Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

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